1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to emergency communication, and more particularly to systems and methods to enable emergency communications when normal communication networks are down due to a disaster or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
During or after a natural disaster, message exchanges to inquire about the safety of family, friends, and so on via e-mail or voice using mobile devices may be impossible due to damage of base stations and/or power failure. Landline phones are relatively more robust against a disaster, but there is a high likelihood that congestion issues will limit their usefulness. Even in such circumstances, public broadcasting systems (terrestrial, BS, CS, etc.) are active as well as satellites. However, the volume and size of the messages exchanged becomes a problem even for these systems.